A stream of tears flooded the giant's face, and the red veins in his eyes thickened as he cried out in a raging bereavement. He then retrieved his axe and gave a full force swing at the ground opposite me.
"MANIFEST: EARTH SPIKE!" he screamed, causing a long stone spike to emerge from beneath me.
It erected itself toward me in an instant, grazing my jaw just before I moved my chin up to evade it.
"You can't stay up there forever!" The giant pointed his arm upward, grabbing at the air with his hand. "Manifest: Earth Clutch!"
At that moment, a long stone arm also erupted from directly under me, grasping my leg tightly. As the giant moved his hand down, the stone hand slammed my body into the floor.
Normally, such an impact would have shattered my spine or broken a few ribs, but I couldn't feel any pain, and I had no control over my voice to groan in agony.
"Shit!" I heard Amber shout as she readied herself to attack.
"Alright! Girl Power!" Snapper leisurely cheered her on. "Give 'em hell, sister!"
Responding to him with only a sharp wince, Amber charged at the giant, ferociously waving her dagger in front of his face, however–
"Ack!"
She clearly intended to strike him, but she was stopped almost immediately as he grabbed her arm and threw her body with so much force, she fell unconscious after knocking her head against the wall.
"WHAT!? DAMMIT!!" A fire suddenly began to rage from the giant's crotch area, meaning Amber's efforts were not in vain.
The giant quickly tried to extinguish the flame by patting that area repeatedly.
Once the stone arm suddenly crumbled on its own, I quickly recovered, using Amber's distraction to my advantage.
"Bolt Storm." After copying Snapper's card, I shot out a barrage of small bolts that hit the giant in his face.
"Gah! What the hell!"
As he failed an attempt to shield his face, I maneuvered over the tables and chairs, leaping into the air before slashing his throat with a deft swing of my blade.
After a few seconds, the giant dropped his axe and he fell backwards, hitting the ground with a loud thud!
An abundance of blood oozed from his neck and began to form a red pool around his enormous body.
It's over…
I felt time freeze once again, and the same burning sensation was spiraling inside my chest.
The sound of hands clapping echoed beside me.
"Well done, I knew using that card on you would be worth it," Snapper said as he began to approach me.
"Wha..." I started to feel light headed. The world through my eyes gradually became disoriented, and before I knew it I was laying on the floor, barely clinging on to consciousness.
"It's alright–I'm not gonna hurt you or anything. You can rest now, kid." I caught one final glimpse of Snapper before my eyelids gave out and everything inside me eventually collapsed into a world of solemn darkness.
…
When I woke up, I was again greeted by Amber, but not with the same kind expression she showed me at the inn.
"If you're awake, could you please get off me now?"
"... Oh."
I immediately lifted my head up after realizing that I had been resting my face on her soft lap.
As I sat up straight, I felt the cold breeze brushing against my hair and watched as the barren terrain was quickly moving around us as though it were alive.
"What happened? And why are we moving so fast?" I asked, unsure if the question was directed at Amber or myself.
"We survived somehow." She answered me nevertheless. "After I woke up, the weirdo in front said he'd drive us to Eastern Contra, since we couldn't stay in the village anymore."
Another person, wearing a blue hood was sitting in front of us, focusing on the road ahead.
"How come we had to leave?"
"That area is a 'No Card Zone', meaning card fights are illegal," Amber explained. "That particular village is also an 'Extreme Zone'; if you're caught using a card in any way, you could get into some serious trouble with the Royal Guards. Not to mention, other groups of Stealers would've hunted us all down anyway. Luckily, the mask wearer had a mount card so we could escape before any of 'em had a chance to arrive."
"A mount card?" I asked. "Is that what we're driving in right now? A mount?"
"Damn, you ask a lot of questions," she hissed in irritation.
"Sorry." I stopped talking in case I offended her.
Her expression then relaxed a little as time went by.
"Since you got to ask so many questions, I guess it's now my turn, right? What the hell was that back there?"
Amber was probably referring to the power I unlocked after Snapper used his strange card ability, but my answer was as good as hers.
"I-I'm not entirely sure myself… I don't know what came over me."
"You took down those bastards with ease, copying all their cards at once… even mine! Not to mention you were floating in the air with this weird golden glow in your eyes–I've never seen anything like it!" She was now leaning dangerously close to me as she began to indulge in her curiosities.
"Honestly, I'm not sure what exactly happened. One moment I thought I was going to die, and the next I felt calm. Somehow, I just knew everything would turn out fine in the end."
I wasn't sure how else to explain it.
"Hmm, now I'm even more curious about you, but…" She started backing away from me, "unfortunately, I think we'll have to go our separate ways once we get to the city. I moved to the South to stay away from any more trouble, not to have it follow me around wherever I go."
I felt the need to apologize once more, but I thought that would make her more irritated, so I remained silent.
"Ohohoho! The little killer's finally awake!" Snapper turned toward me from the driver's seat, flashing a wide grin. "So, how do you feel?"
"... Normal, I guess?" In that instant, my stomach growled loud enough to rival the sharp sound of the mount's whirring motor.
"Hahahaha! You seriously got a strong appetite, huh? I was planning to make a stop soon to refuel, but I guess we could also go hunting in the meantime."
"Hunting?" I turned to our empty surroundings once again. "I haven't seen anything to hunt out here though."
"You wanna bet?" Snapper suddenly stopped the mount and hopped out of the driver's seat.
I then noticed that the mount was slightly suspended above the ground, which was made out of gray sand that looked more like ethereal dust underneath the moon's fluorescent glow.
Snapper caught me staring at it so intently.
"It's moon sand," he said as he moved toward the back of the mount, reaching for something within a large storage unit connected to the rear.
"The sand sits above the layers of shadow soil and stone, which hold a network of underground tunnels that spread across the entire desert. They're dug by black tigers who adapted to hide away from the cold nights and rest until daybreak."
"Black tigers?" I repeated.
Judging by their name, I guessed that they were some kind of vicious creature, although I don't remember seeing or hearing of such things before.
"If they're living underground, how are we supposed to hunt them?"
"Technically we don't hunt them. They gotta hunt us. "
Snapper was currently holding a lengthy pole with a thin metal spike as its base.
He pushed the base of the pole firmly into the sand, slid a small glowing capsule into the slot at its center, and twisted the wheel at the top for a few seconds.
"Ta-da! That should do it," he grinned proudly.
"What is that thing?" Amber asked as she approached.
"It's an 'Audiopole', or as I like to call it: an Echo Stick. Basically, any sound that it picks up from the top is intensified around the center using artificial Vision energy, then it's released from the base in low frequency vibrations."
"Uh-huh…" Amber nodded. "So, not only are you a weirdo, you're also a nerd who likes to use fancy words and wacky Vision tech… Got it…"
Ignoring her words, Snapper reached his hands over the top of the wheel that he twisted.
"Welp, here goes..."
CLAP!
A few seconds after he clasped his hands together, a rumbling sound shook the ground beneath us, making Amber and me lose our balance.
"What's happening!?" she yelled anxiously.
"We're about to become prey!" Snapper answered, laughing hysterically. "Isn't this great!?"
"Are you insane!!?"
I looked around nervously.
In every direction there was only the gray sand that twinkled in the moonlight, and the ominous darkness of the night pressed against it.
Sooner or later, I began to hear distant growls that only kept getting closer.
"Here they come!" Snapper grinned with excitement as he readied his serpent dagger.
Amber and I both did the same as we worriedly gazed at our surroundings.
GROWL!
There it was again, but closer and more ferocious.
"Amber, look out!" I cried, witnessing a black tiger blend into the night as it leapt into the air, attempting to strike Amber from her blind spot.
"Bolt Storm!" Snapper reacted quickly, striking the black tiger with a flurry of bolts before it could reach her. It was knocked onto its side from a direct hit to its abdomen.
"Thanks," Amber said, her gratitude toward Snapper tinged with strain.
"It's not over yet."
We all began to back ourselves into the center of the circumference created by the surrounding black tigers.
"There's so many…" Amber turned to Snapper. "What the hell have you gotten us into!?"
Suddenly, her fingertips once again lit up with flames as if willed by her frustration. I tried to use my new abilities also, but a different card appeared instead.
Snapper looked at it in shock.
"Is that–?"
"No way… You got that guy's birth card!?" Amber exclaimed, as she pointed an inflamed finger at the new card in my possession.
"Shit!" she cried, as her flame was unintentionally transported to the card, which extinguished almost immediately. "Damn, I wasted one."
I worriedly checked the card for any damages, but to my surprise there was no harm done.
"They can't be destroyed, in case you're wondering," Amber assured me.
"I see."
Amber returned her focus to the black tigers that surrounded us. She spread her hands toward the surrounding beasts, allocating a finger to each one she pointed at.
"Fire!"
Almost all her flames simultaneously shot out at once, hitting multiple targets.
Subsequently, pain-ridden howls could be heard from each of the burning beasts.
"Huh, that birth card of yours is pretty useful," Snapper said, directing a mischievous gaze at Amber's card.
"Hey, keep your damn eyes off my card or I'll burn a hole right through them!" she yelled, causing the nervous Snapper to back away slightly.
The burning black tigers rolled around frantically, then quietly whimpered until silence.
Even though the flames were extinguished, it seemed they all died from shock.
"Anymore of you want a piece of me!?" Amber taunted, waving her inflamed middle finger in the tigers' direction.
Clearly terrified of her abilities, they all started howling their retreat before dispersing into the distant darkness.
"Yeah, you better run…! Pussies…"
Snapper applauded her, looking genuinely impressed. "Wow, you put on quite the show there, Ember."
"It's Amber!" she corrected. "I'm surprised those bolts come out of your card instead of your brain."
"Umm, actually–"
"It was a joke, you idiot!"
Grateful that I didn't have to worry about getting eaten alive by those beasts, I decided to cut in.
"Does this mean we're done hunting?"
"Oh, we're done, alright," Snapper replied. "Not only that, we even get to taste Miss Ember's most famous delicacy: burnt tiger meat."
His sarcastic tone caused Amber to furrow her brow.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for saving our lives! Next time I'll just let the black tigers bite your face off. At least then you'll have another reason to hide behind that stupid mask of yours."
Snapper frowned at Amber before cutting out a piece of flesh from one of the defeated tigers.
"At least this one seems edible," he groaned.
He then settled on his mount and started chewing the cooked meat.
"Well, I suppose we should do the same, unless we wanna starve, of course.
"Right... I'll follow your lead."
I read Amber's movements as she cut a small portion of meat from the tiger's stomach, then perfectly imitated them when cutting a piece of my own.